Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Father Involvement
Building Block 1:
Appreciating How
Fathers Give Children
a Head Start
JUNE 2004
This document was prepared under Contract
No. 233-02-0002 of the Head Start Bureau,
Administration on Children,Youth and Families,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
by the National Head Start Training and Technical
Assistance Resource Center, 1000 Wilson Boulevard,
Suite 1000, Arlington,VA 22209.
Building Block 1:
Appreciating How Fathers
Give Children a Head Start
Table of Contents
pg 1 Overview
Overview
Nearly 30 years ago, leading child psychologist Michael E. Lamb reminded us that fathers are the “forgotten
contributors to child development.”1 Since then, much work has been done to explore the ways fathers uniquely
contribute to the healthy development of their children. Scholars now know that boys and girls who grow up
with an involved father, as well as an involved mother, have stronger cognitive and motor skills, enjoy elevated
levels of physical and mental health, become better problem-solvers, and are more confident, curious, and
empathetic. They also show greater moral sensitivity and self-control.
As they grow, well-fathered children are substantially less likely to be sexually involved at an early age, have
babies out of wedlock, or be involved in criminal or violent behavior. They are much more likely to stay in
school, do well there, and go to college.
Fathers can help Head Start programs become more effective in achieving positive outcomes for children. Head
Start programs can help to strengthen the parenting partnership, and help fathers to be more effective in their
children’s lives.
These five Building Blocks for Father Involvement will support Head Start programs in their efforts to promote
father involement. Building Block 1 provides up-to-date research on the essential role that fathers play in the
healthy development of their children.
It is important that Head Start staff and parents understand the importance of the parenting partnership and
why fathers are essential to children’s well-being. This knowledge will help them to better meet the needs of
families and children.
An analysis of over 100 studies on parent-child relationships found that having a loving and nurturing father
was as important for a child’s happiness, well-being, and social and academic success as having a loving and
nurturing mother. Some studies indicated father-love was a stronger contributor to some important positive child
well-being outcomes.3 Weinraub, in “Fatherhood: the Myth of the Second Class Parent,” states that “There is
no doubt that fathers are important contributors to child development. In particular, fathers significantly affect
the development of sex roles, cognitive abilities and achievement motivation.”4
Educational psychologist Paul Amato explains that this higher level of self-control in school children with
involved fathers was also associated with many other healthy qualities, such as improved general life skills, self-
esteem, and higher social skills.6
Kyle Pruett, in Fatherneed, reports on another major scientific study that linked positive fatherhood
involvement with:
■ Lowered levels of disruptive behavior, acting out, depression, and telling lies;
■ Obeying parents, being kind to others, and being responsible;
■ Fewer behavioral problems in young boys; and
■ Girls being happier, more confident, and willing to try new things.
Pruett concludes, “Positive father care is associated with more pro-social and positive moral behavior overall in
boys and girls.”7
A study nearly ten years later, published in Developmental Psychology, found that both well-fathered preschool
boys and girls had increased verbal skills compared with kids with absent or overbearing fathers.9
Ross Parke’s research shows that father involvement in the early months of a child’s life contributes to increased
intellectual, motor, and physical development.10
Henry Biller, noted fatherhood researcher, finds time and again that father-involved children are more confident
and successful in solving complex mathematical and logical puzzles. This may be because fathers tend to be
more specialized in and have a higher interest in analytical problems. Norma Radin found that high father
involvement contributed to higher mathematical competencies in young daughters.11
Michael Yogman conducted a study of the role fathering plays in overcoming the effects of prematurity in
Latino, African-American, and other inner-city populations. When he followed up with these preemies at three
years of age, Yogman found that kids with highly involved fathers had substantially higher cognitive skills than
those children who did not have involved fathers.12
Michael Lamb found that preschool children who had involved fathers had higher cognitive competencies on
standardized intellectual assessments.13
“A white teenage girl from an advantaged background is five times more likely to become a teen mother if she
grows up in a single-mother household than if she grows up in a household with both biological parents.”16
The likelihood that a young male will engage in criminal activity doubles if he is raised without a father and
triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high concentration of fatherless families.17
“The research is absolutely clear…the one human being most capable of curbing the antisocial aggression of a
boy is his biological father.”18
Development of Empathy
A long-term study started in the 1950s found that the strongest indicator for a child being empathetic later in
adulthood was warm father involvement in the early years of the child’s life.19
In a 26-year-long study, researchers found that the number one factor in developing empathy in children was
father involvement. Fathers spending regular time alone with their children translated into children who
became compassionate adults.20
Kyle Pruett, after reviewing the large body of research on father involvement and child development, concludes
“these findings take us beyond a shadow of a doubt” that fathers play an important and irreplaceable role in
healthy child development. He adds, “the closer the connection between father and child, the better off they
both are now and in the future.”21
Percentage of children living apart from their biological fathers (by race):27
African-American children: 66 percent
Hispanic children: 35 percent
White children: 27 percent.
■ Single mothers are the primary caregivers in 84 percent of all single-parent families.26
Good News
The percentage of children under the age of 18 who were raised by only a mother was steady from 1985-1990.
This number dropped eight percent between 1995-2000.31
Fatherhood is just as essential to healthy child development as motherhood. The professional journal, Review of
General Psychology, finds that “Evidence suggests that the influence of father love on offspring’s development is
as great as and occasionally greater than the influence of mother love.”36 Fathering expert Dr. Kyle Pruett
explains in Fatherneed: Why Father Care is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child, “Fathers do not mother.”37
Psychology Today states that, “Fatherhood turns out to be a complex and unique phenomenon with huge
consequences for the emotional and intellectual growth of children.”38 Erik Erikson, a pioneer in the world of
child psychology, explained that father love and mother love are qualitatively different kinds of love. Fathers
“love more dangerously,” Erikson states, because their love is more “expectant, more instrumental” than a
mother’s love.39 A father, as a male biological parent, brings unique contributions to the job of parenting a child
that no one else can provide.
These are some of the most compelling ways father involvement makes a unique and positive difference in a
child’s life.
Generally speaking, fathers tickle more, they wrestle, and they throw their children in the air (while mothers
warn “Not so high!”). Fathers chase their children, sometimes as playful, scary “monsters.” Fathers are louder at
play, while mothers are quieter. Mothers cuddle babies, and fathers bounce them. Fathers roughhouse, while
mothers are gentle. Fathers encourage competition; mothers encourage equity. Fathers encourage independence
while mothers encourage security.
Fathering expert John Snarey notes that children who roughhouse with their fathers learn that biting, kicking,
and other forms of physical violence are not acceptable.40 They learn self-control by being told when “enough is
enough” and when to “settle down.” Fathers help girls and boys learn a healthy balance between timidity and
aggression. Children need mom’s softness, as well as dad’s roughhousing. Both provide security and confidence
in their own ways by communicating love and physical intimacy.
Mother’s way facilitates immediate communication. Father’s way challenges the child to expand his or her
vocabulary and linguistic skills—an important building block of academic success.
Father’s talk tends to be more brief, directive, and to the point. It also makes greater use of facial expressions
and subtle body language. Mothers tend to be more descriptive, personal, and verbally encouraging. Children
who do not learn how to understand and use both styles of conversation will be at a disadvantage, because they
will experience both of these styles as they enter the adult world.
Fathers often help children see that particular attitudes and behaviors have certain consequences. For instance,
fathers are more likely to tell their children that if they are not nice to others, kids will not want to play with
them. Or that, if they don’t do well in school, they will not get into college or land a good job. Generally
speaking, fathers help children prepare for the reality and harshness of the real world, and mothers help protect
against it. Both are necessary as children grow into adulthood.
Girls and boys who grow up with a father are more familiar and secure with the world of men. Girls with
involved fathers are more likely to have healthier, more confident relationships with boys in adolescence and
men in adulthood. This is because girls have a greater opportunity to learn from their fathers how men should
act toward women. They understand from experience which behaviors are inappropriate. Girls raised by
involved fathers also have a healthy familiarity with the world of men. They don’t wonder how a man’s facial
stubble feels or what it’s like to be hugged by strong arms. This knowledge builds emotional security and safety
from the exploitation of predatory males.
Boys who grow up with dads are less likely to be violent. They have their masculinity affirmed and can learn
from their fathers how to channel that masculinity and strength in positive ways. Fathers can help boys
understand appropriate male sexuality, hygiene, and age-appropriate behavior. It can be difficult for mothers to
teach these things to their boys.
Girls with involved fathers, therefore, are more likely to select good boyfriends and husbands because they have
had a good model by which to judge all candidates. Fathers also help weed out bad candidates. Boys raised with
fathers are more likely to be good husbands because they can emulate their fathers’ strengths and learn from
their shortcomings.
The American Journal of Sociology finds that, “Societies with father-present patterns of child socialization
produce men who are less inclined to exclude women from public activities than their counterparts in father-
absent societies.”44
Conclusion
As noted sociologist David Popenoe explains, “Fathers are far more than just ‘second adults’ in the home.
Involved fathers–especially biological fathers–bring positive benefits to their children that no other person is as
likely to bring.”45 Fathers make substantial contributions to the lives of their children. Children are
impoverished developmentally when they are deprived of their father’s love.
The Review of General Psychology states, “Many studies conclude that children with highly involved fathers, in
relation to children with less involved fathers, tend to be more cognitively and socially competent, less inclined
toward gender stereotyping, more empathetic, and psychologically better adjusted.”46
Fathers help children attain all the positive outcomes that Head Start programs do. Fathers can help Head Start
programs become more effective. Head Start programs can help fathers be more effective in their children’s
lives. Building Blocks 2-5 will help programs to prepare, plan, and sustain their efforts to make fathers a key and
effective part of their missions.
Reading List:
Resources on Understanding Why Fathers Matter
Paul R. Amato and Fernando Rivera, “Paternal Involvement and Children’s Behavior Problems,” Journal of
Marriage and the Family 61 (1999): 375-384
Ronald J. Angel and Jacqueline L. Angel, Painful Inheritance: Health and the New Generation of Fatherless
Families, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993)
Henry B. Biller, Father and Families: Paternal Factors in Child Development (Westport, CT: Auburn House, 1993)
David Blankenhorn, Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem (New York: Basic Books,
1994)
Michael E. Lamb, “Fathers: The Forgotten Contributors to Child Development,” Human Development 18
(1975): 245-266
Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur, Growing Up With a Single Parent: What Helps, What Hurts (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1994)
David Popenoe, Life Without Father (New York: The Free Press, 1996)
Kyle D. Pruett, Fatherneed: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child (New York: The Free
Press, 2000)
Ronald P. Rohner and Robert A. Veneziano, “The Importance of Father Love: History and Contemporary
Evidence,” Review of General Psychology 5.4 (2001): 382-405
John Snarey, How Fathers Care for the Next Generation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993)
Endnotes
1 Michael E. Lamb, “Fathers: The Forgotten Contributors to Child Development,” Human Development 18 (1975): 245-266.
2 Paul R. Amato and Fernando Rivera, “Paternal Involvement and Children’s Behavior Problems,” Journal of Marriage
and the Family 61 (1999): 375-384.
3 Rohner and Veneziano, 2001, pp. 382-405.
4 M. Weinraub, “Fatherhood: The Myth of the Second Class Parent,” in J.H. Stevens and M. Matthews, eds.,
Mother/child and Father/child Relationships (Washington DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children,
1978), p. 127.
5 Henry B. Biller, Father and Families: Paternal Factors in Child Development (Westport, CT: Auburn House, 1993).
6 Paul R. Amato, Children in Australian Families: The Growth of Competence (New York: Prentice Hall, 1987).
7 Pruett, 2000, p. 52.
8 Ellen Bing, “The Effect of Child-Rearing Practices on the Development of Differential Cognitive Abilities,” Child
Development 34 (1963): 631-648.
9 Norma Radin, “Father-Child Interaction and the Intellectual Functioning of Four-Year-Old Boys,” Developmental
Psychology 6 (1972): 353-361.
10 Ross Parke, Fatherhood (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996).
11 Henry B. Biller, “The Father and Personality Development: Paternal Deprivation and Sex-Role Development,” in
Michael E. Lamb, ed., The Role of the Father in Child Development (New York: Wiley & Sons, 1981), p. 104; Norma Radin,
cited in Pruett, 2000, p. 45.
12 Michael Yogman, et al., “Father Involvement and Cognitive/Behavioral Outcomes of Preterm Infants,” Journal of the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34 (1995): 58-66.
13 Michael E. Lamb, “Introduction: The Emergent American Father,” in Michael E. Lamb, ed., The Father’s Role: Cross-
Cultural Perspectives (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum and Associates), pp. 3-25.
14 Pruett, 2000, p. 41-42.
15 Frank Furstenberg and Kathleen Harris, “When and Why Fathers Matter: Impacts of Father Involvement on Children
of Adolescent Mothers,” R. Lerman and T. Ooms, eds. in Young Unwed Fathers: Changing Roles and Emerging Policies
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993).
16 Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, “Facing the Challenge of Fragmented Families,” The Philanthropy Roundtable 9.1 (1995): 21.
17 Anne Hill and June O’Neil, Underclass Behaviors in the United States: Measurements and Analysis or Determinants (New
York: City University of New York, 1993).